Leadership and Management

for
Service Industries

Sustainability in the hospitality industry

Table of Contents

Introduction 3
Company overview 4
LO1 Classical management theories and leadership styles 4
LO2 Factors that influence different management styles and structures 9
LO3 Current and future management and leadership skills 11
LO4 Management and leadership skills 14
Conclusion 16
References 17

2
Introduction

Digital technology has a tremendous effect on the business environment both internally
and externally. Due to the use of digital technologies, manual work has reduced and it has
become the most reliable means of rendering service to the customers as well as its impact on the
evolving managerial and leadership role of the organization.
In the service industry UK, based on the travelling and tourism industry such as the
touchdown travel the report has been prepared. This is tried to focus on the managerial and
leadership theories, approaches, and the impacts of emerging technology in this service industry.
Furthermore, the role of leader and leadership styles, internal and external factors that
influence the leadership style, future management skills and ways to achieve them are discussed
with appropriate example. Thus, with the evolving role of management and leadership, it is
hoped that the travel and tourism business get competitive advantages in the market.

3
Company overview

The Touchdown is a UK based international travel organization established in 1977. At

present, it has more than 345 employees with advanced vehicles and accessories necessary for
travel. It is operating with more than 24 branches throughout the country. Touchdown travel has
a wide array of products on travelling and tourism for the customers (Touchdown.co.uk. 2019).

LO1 Reviewing the classical management theories and leadership styles

According to the implication to a different organization, the management theories are

classified into classical, neoclassical and modern management theories. Management theories
deal with the proper managerial execution of production and operation elements such as men,
machine, martial, money, market and methods both in the production and service industry (Cole,
2004).
(1) Bureaucratic approach - Other than the conventional classical theories the bureaucracy
theory refers to the formal authority system in an organization. The bureaucratic
approach is developed by Max Weber. The central and core concept of bureaucracy
formal relationship and authority of organizational hierarchy (Harris, 2000). For example,
the line of order in management, supervisor, staffs etc. in the travel and tourism business
industry.
(2) Administrative approach - Henri Fayol developed the administrative theory. This
management theory concern with all of the main business activities within the
organization. Hence, management is considered the main and primary business activities.
Under this theory, managers are provided with a detailed outline for operating the
functions of a business. For example, the booking, scheduling, recruitment functions of
Touchdown travel in the UK.
(3) Systems approach - In the travel and tourism business, the system theory means the
management is an interrelated component of the organization. Instead of viewing the
organization as separate, the system theory believes in an organism where all the
elements of production, service and management are interrelated and interdependent with

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 each other (Bratton and Gold, 2017). For example, the Touchdown travel render
functions on operations, reservation, and management of all the necessary logistics.
Hence, the manager has to handle all of these functions considering their interrelations
with each other. This is a difficult task because any alteration of one function has a
potential and subsequent impact on the other functions too.
(4) Contingency or situational approach - In the travel and tourism industry, the
contingency and situational theory refers to effective managers must be adaptable enough
to any change in the situation or circumstances in the organization. Especially in the
service industry the trends, habits, and taste of the customers always change over the
changes of modern technology. For example, with the introduction of online-based
marketing, the managers of touchdown travel recruit 20 experts on IT in the organization
to adopt the changes in the market successfully.

Application of classical management theories in Touchdown travel

With the introduction of modern digital technology, the business environment has
changed dramatically from the conventional one. This is because advanced technology has a
potential influence on the business environment and their practices.
In the influence of emerging technology, Touchdown travel follows the democratic
leadership style within the organization to make the decision. Touchdown travel mostly relies on
the contingency theory of management, scientific management theory, administrative theory etc.
(Bratton and Gold, 2017).
This is because in the travel and tourism industry the collaboration and communication
are crucial to be successful. The managers need to create an inner feeling among the personnel so
that they offer their best services to the customers. Furthermore, in this era of technology,
personal opinion, feelings, and viewpoint are also vital for the decision-makers to make an
effective and efficient decision. For example, new and fresh ideas are encouraged from the
employees to reshape the services based on regular feedback from the customers
(Touchdown.co.uk. 2019).
Touchdown travel has the real reflection of theory and practices within the organization.
The manager in Touchdown travel relies on the contingency theory of management which is
mainly a situation based theory. The decision of management is not vague, and rigid rather

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flexible and changeable according to the need of the situation in the organization. That refers to
when the manager has taken a decision but the situation refers to something different than the
manager has then management usually alters the decision because of the demand of the situation
(Cole, 2004).
Moreover, the management of modern technology and other equipment within the
organization is the prime concern for managers which supports the administrative theory of
management. Furthermore, Touchdown travel believes that every element of the production and
services is a part of the organization. Any alteration of any elements causes and have potential
impacts on the other. For example, in the travel and tourism industry, the reduction of online
promotional activities has potential impacts on the amount of revenue for the organization
(Itt.co.uk. 2019).

The role of leader in the organization

In the context of the service industry in the UK, the leader plays the main role in all
functions and actions. It’s the leader who mainly arranges all the elements of service and makes
coordination. The leader also takes necessary initiatives to fix a target and drive all the personnel
for attaining those target with appropriate guidance and initiatives. Some of the roles that the
leader usually performs are as below:
(1) Maintaining good communication with all the stakeholders of the travel and tourism
industry and other services sectors.
(2) Developing an interpersonal relationship among the internal and external vendors of the
organization. For example, Touchdown travel focuses on developing interpersonal
communication among the employees to develop a communication channel among them.
(Bratton and Gold, 2017).
(3) Arrangement of logistics: in the service industry, the necessary inbound and outbound
logistics are required to handle with care for successful travelling services. For example,
the transportation facilities, living facilities, riding, dining facilities, the channel of online
order and decoration facilities of Touchdown travel in the UK.
(4) Coordination and collaboration: the leader mainly arrange the means of productions and
coordinates all the elements together. For instances, preparing and accessing the budget
plan for Touchdown travel agency.

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 (5) Developing the skills: In any dynamic and ever-changing organization such as the
Touchdown travel, the leader needs to encourage and facilitates the opportunities to
improve the skills and abilities of the personnel for using digital technologies (Porter,
1963).

The leadership style

In the service industry, different organization follow a wide range of leadership. Some of
the most common leadership style in the organization are autocratic leadership, democratic
leadership, laissez-faire leadership, strategic leadership, transformational and transactional
leadership etc.
The leadership style varies according to the nature, structure and culture of the
organization. In the context of the travelling industry in the UK, democratic leadership is the
most successful and reliable. For example, Touchdown travel follows democratic leadership and
has got immense success in the sector of the service industry (Touchdown.co.uk. 2019).
(1) Structure
According to the structure of Touchdown travel, democratic leadership suits best for
leading the whole functions of the organization. Touchdown travel mainly consists of the
following hierarchy of author within the organization. Here, the chairman mainly holds the
authority of making a decision. Touchdown travel follows the democratic pattern of leadership in
the sense that the managers of marketing, operations, accounts and finance are always
encouraged to give an opinion regarding the decision of crucial issues such as the influence of
emerging technology in the service industry in the UK.
Figure 1 Organizational structure of Touch Travel

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 (2) Culture - Organizational culture consists of the production, service, people, and
environment of the organization. Culture is the shared value among the employees.
According to changes of culture, Touchdown travel follows the democratic leadership
approach. This is because democratic leadership always facilitates and encourage the
personnel within the organization to learn new things on regular basis. Because the
individual needs are get prioritize in this approach.
For example, Touchdown travel creates a culture of collaboration and cooperation by the
good practice of democratic leadership. Under this leadership approach, the managers assess the
need to identify the needs and expectations of the employees and make necessary arrangement
for training, seminars, workshop on the use of advanced technology for business purpose (Porter,
1963).

In Touchdown travel, the leadership and management style has got a potential impact on
the use of emerging digital technology. Such as the customers of In Touchdown travel now reach
and access from their mobile phone for setting order, getting relevant information, and getting an
update on the products and services (Cole, 2004).
Some of the leadership skills development among the leader due to the organizational
changes. Such as due to the introduction of emerging technology in the travel and tourism

8
industry the leader also needs to changes the leadership style according to the demand of the
changes of emerging technology.
Furthermore, the use of modern and advanced technology such as database software,
marketing software, etc. also can potentially change the pattern of leadership in the organization.
For example, in In Touchdown travel, the leader started to practices the democratic approach of
leadership with the influence of emerging technology in the service industry.

Evaluating the theory and practices correlation

Touchdown travel there is a strong correlation between the leadership styles and the
theories of leadership in the organization in compliance to the use of emerging technology in the
service industry. For example, to implement the democratic practice in the organization the
leaders seek feedback from the customers and the employees on the use of marking promotion
software from where the customers and vendors can easily access and place an order for
reservation and other services (Bratton and Gold, 2017).

LO2 Exploring the factors which influence the management style and structure in the travel
and tourism industry in the UK

Due to the influence of various factors within and out of the organization, the
management styles are found to be different in the service industry such as the travel and tourism
industry in the UK. The success of the service industry in the context of the UK, rely on adopting
an appropriate leadership approach in the organization. Many aspects influence the management
style, some of them are briefly described below:
Influencing factors management styles and structure
Internal factors
(1) Personality
According to the personal pattern of behaviour of the leader, the management and
leadership approach will vary in the service industry such as Atlanta travel agency. For example,
if the leader is friendly he or she usually prefers a democratic leadership approach. On the other

9
hand, when the leader is strict and dominating in nature he or she will prefer the autocratic
leadership approach.
(2) Believe
Due to the personal beliefs of the leader, the style of leadership may be different.
Personal belief influences the leadership style a lot (Porter, 1963). For example, in Touchdown
travel, when the leader perceives that the employees are willing enough to perform all the task of
their own accord then the leader will design necessary means of incentives and reward.
Otherwise, retrenchment and punishment will be the leading technique for the leader in the
service industry.
(3) Company culture
The culture of an organization also defines the leadership styles in the organization. For
instances, when an organization follow democratic leadership approach it can’t change it
overnight to autocratic.
(4) Employee diversity
The personnel from different age, race, gender, ethnicity and culture create diversity in
the organization. Due to the diversity sometimes organization follow the mixed strategy to
manage and lead them to attain a particular goal. For example, in the intense service industry, if
the leaders maintain a similar strategy then all the employee may find it difficult to adopt
accordingly (Harris, 2000).

External factors
Besides the internal factors within the organization, the external factor such as
Sociological, political, economic and technology are some crucial factors which have influence
in leadership style within the organization. For example, in the case of a stable political and
economic environment, the number of customer’s increases and the operation department needs
to adopt a new strategy to increase the service volume for the increased number of customers.
Analysis of the key influencing factors Among the internal and external factors some
key determinates has a direct influence on the leadership style and structure.
(1) Advanced digital technology
In the travel and tourism business, the environment and the pattern of management are
dramatically changed due to the introduction of modern technology. The use of the internet, web,

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social networking sites, search engine, gadget, rapid access of a computer, online-based retailing
etc. has brought a dramatic change in the business organization, leadership and management
style. For example,
 Strength of Advanced digital technology: the customer can easily get all the relevant
information, place an order or reservation, the procedure of payment, the relevant terms
and conditions in the organization for reservation with the click of the mouse.
 Weakness of Advanced digital technology: advanced technology needs a huge amount
of investments for the organization in terms of capital, human resource etc. It also
increases the complexity of the organization. Moreover, it is very difficult for the
organization to make coordinate.

LO3 The current and future management and leadership skills for the service sector

Management is nothing but get the thing done by the effort of other people in the
organization such as the touchdown travel agency in the UK. In the service industry such as
Touchdown travel, success mainly relies on the effective decision making of the managers. To
do so the managers need to have the following hard and soft skills and abilities.
Management skills in touchdown travel
In the context of the service industry in the UK, such as the touchdown travel agency get
immense success due to the perfect decision of management to handle the challenges of
emerging technology in the travelling industry. Some of the skills and abilities of the manager
are interpersonal skills, information skills, liaison skills, leadership skills, and communication
skills.
Moreover, the managers of a touchdown travel agency are very much qualified, educated
and have proper knowledge about their work (Harris, 2000).
Soft skills refer to the skills and abilities of a manager that is trainable and can be learnt
over time. For example, some of the hard skills that the managers of the touchdown travel
agency good command over both reading and writing, efficiency, communication abilities,
technological advancement, networking etc.

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 On the other hand, various hard skills that the touchdown travel agency ensures from the
manager for effective decision in the challenge of influence of emerging technology. Such as the
leadership skills, good personal attitude and behaviour, stress handling capability
For instances, the touchdown travel agency in 2013 faced a financial crisis and require a
loan to overcome the situation. Due to the efficient and effective decision of management, the
organization reduces the amount of expenditure and overcome the situation by their fund
(Touchdown.co.uk. 2019).
Example of Managerial and Leadership skills in the service sector
The manager of their service sectors such as restaurant, travel agency, currier etc. also
has different hard and soft skills of management and leadership. For example, the management
of Atlanta travel is much more popular due to the benevolent approach of the management team.
The kings of curry in the UK has immense popularity in the city because of good networking and
communication among all the vendors such as the customer, suppliers, marketers, and the
internal employees of the organization.
Required management and leadership skills for future
As the business environment gets continuous changes over time dramatically due to the
emerging technology in the service industry. For example, in touchdown travel agency most of
the reservation order is from online customers. Furthermore, all the marketing effort are also
done via online and other social networking sites. With the passes of time, this dependency on
emergence technology is increasing and the manager and leaders need to have some skills and
abilities to cope with the changes in this business environment (Harris, 2000).
Some of the management and leadership skills that the organization must render are
given as below:
(1) Managers need to be more skilful about the emergence and use of modern technology in
the organization.
(2) Managers also need to know how different technology such as social networking sites
can be effectively managed and use for the betterment of the organization.
(3) The leader and decision-makers can use different statistical database and tool for making
a decision.
(4) There need to have a distinctive and separate wing for further research and development
so that organization can effectively take advantages from those emerging technologies.

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 (5) In the case of leadership skills, the touchdown travel agency can hire the key resource
person with more skills and abilities on collaboration and coordination both with the
internal and external factors of the organization.

Achieving management and leadership skills for future

In the service sector such as the travel and tourism industry for Achieving management
and leadership skills for the future is much more challenging. Organization can arrange different
training, seminars, conference, workshop on the use of modern technology for decision making
in the organization.
In the travel and tourism industry, in near future, more and more advanced technology
will come. In this dynamic market, the competitors also get an edge. Therefore, the management
should always get updated in case of skills, abilities and information.
Finally, the business organization needs to know the trend of the world travelling and
tourism industry and their managerial and leadership skills and abilities. This also can be
valuable sources for the manager to improve their future leadership skills and abilities.
For example, the Touchdown travel agency gets managerial assistance such as leading,
controlling, monitoring support from the management alliance, UK. The managers can increase
their conceptual skills by gathering knowledge on the relevant field. Moreover, an organization
can arrange and offer various opportunities for their personnel to understand the basic concepts,
knowledge of tourism. Thus, the managers will be more capable to render the best services. And
the functions will be able to conduct digitally using digital and emerging technologies
(Touchdown.co.uk. 2019).
Evaluating current and future leadership skills
In the context of the UK, the service sector such as touchdown travel agency has brought
tremendous success on the application of leadership skills and abilities. Due to this now the
touchdown travel agency is operating with more than 24 branches. But because of the emerging
technology in the travel and tourism industry the future management will not remain too smooth
anymore. This because with the introduction of advanced technology the complexity of the
business will increase. The competitors also get more intense in market competition. So it’s the
prime duty of management to get an upgrade to the use of technology for the organization.

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LO4 the management and leadership skills in the service industry

 Change management process - Change management is a systematic approach for

transformation, the strategy, goal, process and technologies within the organization. On
the other hand, the change management process involves the step to make the
organization capable of adoption with continuous changes in the market.
In the service industry such as the travel and tourism industry, change management
involves the steps of the change request, impact analysis, approval, implement and reporting for
a change. In the first step, organization adopt changes such as the technological changes in the
service industry.
Then the manager needs to determine the potential impact on the decision and
environment of the organization. Furthermore, according to the impact the change is made and
continuous reporting is rendered.
 Leadership for implementing change - In the Touchdown travel and tourism industry,
the leaders are always tried their best to the introduction and implementing the change in
the organization. This is because the travel and tourism industry is very much competitive
and mostly rely on the emerging technologies and their application.
For example, previously the managers focused on the internet literacy of the employees
for recruitment but nowadays employees are get training on more advanced knowledge on
technology such as marketing software development for sales and marketing of Touchdown
travel (Harris, 2000).

Table 1 Comparison and contrast among travel services in the UK

Topic Touchdown travel Atlas travel Business travel
In Touchdown travel They are mainly Business travel draw
the management is prone to adopt changes on the
Adaptation of new most like to adopt the changes with modern management know-
changes changes such as the equipment’s. Such as how and increase the
use of application in 2015 they add10 professional skills and
bank and database modern couch for the abilities of their
software, marketing traveller's comfort employees

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 software; (Itt.co.uk., 2019)
On managerial and They do not focus too They arrange
leadership they are much on the adequate management
Change on concern about quality management changes. initiative to improve
management and management and to Changes mean only the skills and abilities
leadership do so they arrange technological changes of key personnel.
training for skill in this organization.
improvement of key
personnel.
They introduce To survive in the For increasing the
marketing promotion market they have management know
Example of software and a strong developed strong how they focus on the
management system database for the inbound and outbound training and skills
information of advanced logistics development
customers such as modern initiatives from
(Touchdown.co.uk. equipment’s. abroad.
2019).

How change management process has impacts on leadership skills and styles
Change management has a direct impact on leadership skills and styles. Some of the
leadership skills development among the leader due to the organizational changes. Such as due to
the introduction of emerging technology in the travel and tourism industry the leader also needs
to changes the leadership style according to the demand of the changes.
Furthermore, the use of modern and advanced technology such as database software,
marketing software, etc. also can potentially change the pattern of leadership in the organization.
For example, in Touchdown travel, the leader started to practices the democratic
approach of leadership with the influence of emerging technology in the service industry, UK.

15
Conclusion

Digital technology has a tremendous effect on the business environment. Due to the use
of digital technologies, manual work has reduced and it has become the most reliable means of
rendering service to the customers as well as its impact on the evolving managerial and
leadership role of the organization. The managerial and leadership role varies according to the
application of digital technology in the service industry in the context of the UK.
Finally, it can be said that the use of digital technology has open a horizon of opportunity
for the organization in the service industry. Managerial and leadership skills are also required to
adjust to the changes due to the emergence of technology in the travel and tourism business, in
the UK.

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